OpenRaiser/Intern-Atlas huggingface dataset:
BackdoorBench: A Comprehensive Benchmark and Analysis of Backdoor Learning
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2024
Year: 2024

As an emerging approach to explore the vulnerability of deep neural networks (DNNs), backdoor learning has attracted increasing interest in recent years, and many seminal backdoor attack and defense algorithms are being developed successively or concurrently, in the status of a rapid arms race. However, mainly due to the diverse settings, and the difficulties of implementation and reproducibility of existing works, there is a lack of a unified and standardized benchmark of backdoor learning, causing unfair comparisons or unreliable conclusions (e.g., misleading, biased or even false conclusions). Consequently, it is difficult to evaluate the current progress and design the future development roadmap of this literature. To alleviate this dilemma, we build a comprehensive benchmark of backdoor learning called BackdoorBench. Our benchmark makes three valuable contributions to the research community. 1) We provide an integrated implementation of state-of-the-art (SOTA) backdoor learning algorithms (currently including 20 attack and 32 defense algorithms), based on an extensible modular-based codebase. 2) We conduct comprehensive evaluations with 5 poisoning ratios, based on 4 models and 4 datasets, leading to 11,492 pairs of attack-against-defense evaluations in total. 3) Based on above evaluations, we present abundant analysis from 10 perspectives via 18 useful analysis tools, and provide several inspiring insights about backdoor learning. We hope that our efforts could build a solid foundation of backdoor learning to facilitate researchers to investigate existing algorithms, develop more innovative algorithms, and explore the intrinsic mechanism of backdoor learning. Finally, we have created a user-friendly website at http://backdoorbench.com, which collects all important information of BackdoorBench, including codebase, docs, leaderboard, and model Zoo.
Normality Addition via Normality Detection in Industrial Image Anomaly Detection Models
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2024
Year: 2024

The task of image anomaly detection (IAD) aims to identify deviations from normality in image data. These anomalies are patterns that deviate significantly from what the IAD model has learned from the data during training. However, in real-world scenarios, the criteria for what constitutes normality often change, necessitating the reclassification of previously anomalous instances as normal. To address this challenge, we propose a new scenario termed "normality addition," involving the post-training adjustment of decision boundaries to incorporate new normalities. To address this challenge, we propose a method called Normality Addition via Normality Detection (NAND), leveraging a vision-language model. NAND performs normality detection which detect patterns related to the intended normality within images based on textual descriptions. We then modify the results of a pre-trained IAD model to implement this normality addition. Using the benchmark dataset in IAD, MVTec AD, we establish an evaluation protocol for the normality addition task and empirically demonstrate the effectiveness of the NAND method.
Preliminary WMT24 Ranking of General MT Systems and LLMs
Venue: arXiv cs.CL 2024
Year: 2024

This is the preliminary ranking of WMT24 General MT systems based on automatic metrics. The official ranking will be a human evaluation, which is superior to the automatic ranking and supersedes it. The purpose of this report is not to interpret any findings but only provide preliminary results to the participants of the General MT task that may be useful during the writing of the system submission.
Modeling Local Search Metaheuristics Using Markov Decision Processes
Venue: arXiv cs.NE 2024
Year: 2024

Local search metaheuristics like tabu search or simulated annealing are popular heuristic optimization algorithms for finding near-optimal solutions for combinatorial optimization problems. However, it is still challenging for researchers and practitioners to analyze their behaviour and systematically choose one over a vast set of possible metaheuristics for the particular problem at hand. In this paper, we introduce a theoretical framework based on Markov Decision Processes (MDP) for analyzing local search metaheuristics. This framework not only helps in providing convergence results for individual algorithms, but also provides an explicit characterization of the exploration-exploitation tradeoff and a theory-grounded guidance for practitioners for choosing an appropriate metaheuristic for the problem at hand. We present this framework in detail and show how to apply it in the case of hill climbing and the simulated annealing algorithm.
Graph Fourier Transform Enhancement through Envelope Extensions
Venue: arXiv cs.IT 2024
Year: 2024

Many real-world networks are characterized by directionality; however, the absence of an appropriate Fourier basis hinders the effective implementation of graph signal processing techniques. Inspired by discrete signal processing, where embedding a line digraph into a cycle digraph facilitates the powerful Discrete Fourier Transform for signal analysis, addressing the structural complexities of general digraphs can help overcome the limitations of the Graph Fourier Transform (GFT) and unlock its potential. The Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) serves as a Graph Fourier Transform for both cycle graphs and Cayley digraphs on the finite cyclic groups $\mathbb{Z}_N$. We propose a systematic method to identify a class of such Cayley digraphs that can encompass a given directed graph. By embedding the directed graph into these Cayley digraphs and opting for envelope extensions that naturally support the Graph Fourier Transform, the GFT functionalities of these extensions can be harnessed for signal analysis. Among the potential envelopes, optimal performance is achieved by selecting one that meets key properties. This envelope's structure closely aligns with the characteristics of the original digraph. The Graph Fourier Transform of this envelope is reliable in terms of numerical stability, and its columns approximately form an eigenbasis for the adjacency matrix associated with the original digraph. It is shown that the envelope extensions possess a convolution product, with their GFT fulfilling the convolution theorem. Additionally, shift-invariant graph filters (systems) are described as the convolution operator, analogous to the classical case. This allows the utilization of systems for signal analysis.
AOTree: Aspect Order Tree-based Model for Explainable Recommendation
Venue: arXiv cs.IR 2024
Year: 2024

Recent recommender systems aim to provide not only accurate recommendations but also explanations that help users understand them better. However, most existing explainable recommendations only consider the importance of content in reviews, such as words or aspects, and ignore the ordering relationship among them. This oversight neglects crucial ordering dimensions in the human decision-making process, leading to suboptimal performance. Therefore, in this paper, we propose Aspect Order Tree-based (AOTree) explainable recommendation method, inspired by the Order Effects Theory from cognitive and decision psychology, in order to capture the dependency relationships among decisive factors. We first validate the theory in the recommendation scenario by analyzing the reviews of the users. Then, according to the theory, the proposed AOTree expands the construction of the decision tree to capture aspect orders in users' decision-making processes, and use attention mechanisms to make predictions based on the aspect orders. Extensive experiments demonstrate our method's effectiveness on rating predictions, and our approach aligns more consistently with the user' s decision-making process by displaying explanations in a particular order, thereby enhancing interpretability.
Robust Conformal Volume Estimation in 3D Medical Images
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2024
Year: 2024

Volumetry is one of the principal downstream applications of 3D medical image segmentation, for example, to detect abnormal tissue growth or for surgery planning. Conformal Prediction is a promising framework for uncertainty quantification, providing calibrated predictive intervals associated with automatic volume measurements. However, this methodology is based on the hypothesis that calibration and test samples are exchangeable, an assumption that is in practice often violated in medical image applications. A weighted formulation of Conformal Prediction can be framed to mitigate this issue, but its empirical investigation in the medical domain is still lacking. A potential reason is that it relies on the estimation of the density ratio between the calibration and test distributions, which is likely to be intractable in scenarios involving high-dimensional data. To circumvent this, we propose an efficient approach for density ratio estimation relying on the compressed latent representations generated by the segmentation model. Our experiments demonstrate the efficiency of our approach to reduce the coverage error in the presence of covariate shifts, in both synthetic and real-world settings. Our implementation is available at https://github.com/benolmbrt/wcp_miccai
A multilevel backbone extraction framework
Venue: arXiv cs.SI 2024
Year: 2024

As networks grow in size and complexity, backbones become an essential network representation. Indeed, they provide a simplified yet informative overview of the underlying organization by retaining the most significant and structurally influential connections within a network. Network heterogeneity often results in complex and intricate structures, making it challenging to identify the backbone. In response, we introduce the Multilevel Backbone Extraction Framework, a novel approach that diverges from conventional backbone methodologies. This generic approach prioritizes the mesoscopic organization of networks. First, it splits the network into homogeneous-density components. Second, it extracts independent backbones for each component using any classical Backbone technique. Finally, the various backbones are combined. This strategy effectively addresses the heterogeneity observed in network groupings. Empirical investigations on real-world networks underscore the efficacy of the Multilevel Backbone approach in preserving essential network structures and properties. Experiments demonstrate its superiority over classical methods in handling network heterogeneity and enhancing network integrity. The framework is adaptable to various types of networks and backbone extraction techniques, making it a versatile tool for network analysis and backbone extraction across diverse network applications.
FedDEO: Description-Enhanced One-Shot Federated Learning with Diffusion Models
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2024
Year: 2024

In recent years, the attention towards One-Shot Federated Learning (OSFL) has been driven by its capacity to minimize communication. With the development of the diffusion model (DM), several methods employ the DM for OSFL, utilizing model parameters, image features, or textual prompts as mediums to transfer the local client knowledge to the server. However, these mediums often require public datasets or the uniform feature extractor, significantly limiting their practicality. In this paper, we propose FedDEO, a Description-Enhanced One-Shot Federated Learning Method with DMs, offering a novel exploration of utilizing the DM in OSFL. The core idea of our method involves training local descriptions on the clients, serving as the medium to transfer the knowledge of the distributed clients to the server. Firstly, we train local descriptions on the client data to capture the characteristics of client distributions, which are then uploaded to the server. On the server, the descriptions are used as conditions to guide the DM in generating synthetic datasets that comply with the distributions of various clients, enabling the training of the aggregated model. Theoretical analyses and sufficient quantitation and visualization experiments on three large-scale real-world datasets demonstrate that through the training of local descriptions, the server is capable of generating synthetic datasets with high quality and diversity. Consequently, with advantages in communication and privacy protection, the aggregated model outperforms compared FL or diffusion-based OSFL methods and, on some clients, outperforms the performance ceiling of centralized training.
MambaGesture: Enhancing Co-Speech Gesture Generation with Mamba and Disentangled Multi-Modality Fusion
Venue: arXiv cs.HC 2024
Year: 2024

Co-speech gesture generation is crucial for producing synchronized and realistic human gestures that accompany speech, enhancing the animation of lifelike avatars in virtual environments. While diffusion models have shown impressive capabilities, current approaches often overlook a wide range of modalities and their interactions, resulting in less dynamic and contextually varied gestures. To address these challenges, we present MambaGesture, a novel framework integrating a Mamba-based attention block, MambaAttn, with a multi-modality feature fusion module, SEAD. The MambaAttn block combines the sequential data processing strengths of the Mamba model with the contextual richness of attention mechanisms, enhancing the temporal coherence of generated gestures. SEAD adeptly fuses audio, text, style, and emotion modalities, employing disentanglement to deepen the fusion process and yield gestures with greater realism and diversity. Our approach, rigorously evaluated on the multi-modal BEAT dataset, demonstrates significant improvements in Fréchet Gesture Distance (FGD), diversity scores, and beat alignment, achieving state-of-the-art performance in co-speech gesture generation. Project website: $\href{https://fcchit.github.io/mambagesture/}{\textit{https://fcchit.github.io/mambagesture/}}$.
Physically-based Path Tracer using WebGPU and OpenPBR
Venue: arXiv cs.GR 2024
Year: 2024

This work presents a web-based, open-source path tracer for rendering physically-based 3D scenes using WebGPU and the OpenPBR surface shading model. While rasterization has been the dominant real-time rendering technique on the web since WebGL's introduction in 2011, it struggles with global illumination. This necessitates more complex techniques, often relying on pregenerated artifacts to attain the desired level of visual fidelity. Path tracing inherently addresses these limitations but at the cost of increased rendering time. Our work focuses on industrial applications where highly customizable products are common and real-time performance is not critical. We leverage WebGPU to implement path tracing on the web, integrating the OpenPBR standard for physically-based material representation. The result is a near real-time path tracer capable of rendering high-fidelity 3D scenes directly in web browsers, eliminating the need for pregenerated assets. Our implementation demonstrates the potential of WebGPU for advanced rendering techniques and opens new possibilities for web-based 3D visualization in industrial applications.
Reproducibility Study of "ITI-GEN: Inclusive Text-to-Image Generation"
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2024
Year: 2024

Text-to-image generative models often present issues regarding fairness with respect to certain sensitive attributes, such as gender or skin tone. This study aims to reproduce the results presented in "ITI-GEN: Inclusive Text-to-Image Generation" by Zhang et al. (2023a), which introduces a model to improve inclusiveness in these kinds of models. We show that most of the claims made by the authors about ITI-GEN hold: it improves the diversity and quality of generated images, it is scalable to different domains, it has plug-and-play capabilities, and it is efficient from a computational point of view. However, ITI-GEN sometimes uses undesired attributes as proxy features and it is unable to disentangle some pairs of (correlated) attributes such as gender and baldness. In addition, when the number of considered attributes increases, the training time grows exponentially and ITI-GEN struggles to generate inclusive images for all elements in the joint distribution. To solve these issues, we propose using Hard Prompt Search with negative prompting, a method that does not require training and that handles negation better than vanilla Hard Prompt Search. Nonetheless, Hard Prompt Search (with or without negative prompting) cannot be used for continuous attributes that are hard to express in natural language, an area where ITI-GEN excels as it is guided by images during training. Finally, we propose combining ITI-GEN and Hard Prompt Search with negative prompting.
Do LLMs Really Adapt to Domains? An Ontology Learning Perspective
Venue: arXiv cs.CL 2024
Year: 2024

Large Language Models (LLMs) have demonstrated unprecedented prowess across various natural language processing tasks in various application domains. Recent studies show that LLMs can be leveraged to perform lexical semantic tasks, such as Knowledge Base Completion (KBC) or Ontology Learning (OL). However, it has not effectively been verified whether their success is due to their ability to reason over unstructured or semi-structured data, or their effective learning of linguistic patterns and senses alone. This unresolved question is particularly crucial when dealing with domain-specific data, where the lexical senses and their meaning can completely differ from what a LLM has learned during its training stage. This paper investigates the following question: Do LLMs really adapt to domains and remain consistent in the extraction of structured knowledge, or do they only learn lexical senses instead of reasoning? To answer this question and, we devise a controlled experiment setup that uses WordNet to synthesize parallel corpora, with English and gibberish terms. We examine the differences in the outputs of LLMs for each corpus in two OL tasks: relation extraction and taxonomy discovery. Empirical results show that, while adapting to the gibberish corpora, off-the-shelf LLMs do not consistently reason over semantic relationships between concepts, and instead leverage senses and their frame. However, fine-tuning improves the performance of LLMs on lexical semantic tasks even when the domain-specific terms are arbitrary and unseen during pre-training, hinting at the applicability of pre-trained LLMs for OL.
SalNAS: Efficient Saliency-prediction Neural Architecture Search with self-knowledge distillation
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2024
Year: 2024

Recent advancements in deep convolutional neural networks have significantly improved the performance of saliency prediction. However, the manual configuration of the neural network architectures requires domain knowledge expertise and can still be time-consuming and error-prone. To solve this, we propose a new Neural Architecture Search (NAS) framework for saliency prediction with two contributions. Firstly, a supernet for saliency prediction is built with a weight-sharing network containing all candidate architectures, by integrating a dynamic convolution into the encoder-decoder in the supernet, termed SalNAS. Secondly, despite the fact that SalNAS is highly efficient (20.98 million parameters), it can suffer from the lack of generalization. To solve this, we propose a self-knowledge distillation approach, termed Self-KD, that trains the student SalNAS with the weighted average information between the ground truth and the prediction from the teacher model. The teacher model, while sharing the same architecture, contains the best-performing weights chosen by cross-validation. Self-KD can generalize well without the need to compute the gradient in the teacher model, enabling an efficient training system. By utilizing Self-KD, SalNAS outperforms other state-of-the-art saliency prediction models in most evaluation rubrics across seven benchmark datasets while being a lightweight model. The code will be available at https://github.com/chakkritte/SalNAS
Crafting Generative Art through Genetic Improvement: Managing Creative Outputs in Diverse Fitness Landscapes
Venue: arXiv cs.NE 2024
Year: 2024

Generative art is a rules-driven approach to creating artistic outputs in various mediums. For example, a fluid simulation can govern the flow of colored pixels across a digital display or a rectangle placement algorithm can yield a Mondrian-style painting. Previously, we investigated how genetic improvement, a sub-field of genetic programming, can automatically create and optimize generative art drawing programs. One challenge of applying genetic improvement to generative art is defining fitness functions and their interaction in a many-objective evolutionary algorithm such as Lexicase selection. Here, we assess the impact of each fitness function in terms of the their individual effects on generated images, characteristics of generated programs, and impact of bloat on this specific domain. Furthermore, we have added an additional fitness function that uses a classifier for mimicking a human's assessment as to whether an output is considered as "art." This classifier is trained on a dataset of input images resembling the glitch art aesthetic that we aim to create. Our experimental results show that with few fitness functions, individual generative techniques sweep across populations. Moreover, we found that compositions tended to be driven by one technique with our current fitness functions. Lastly, we show that our classifier is best suited for filtering out noisy images, ideally leading towards more outputs relevant to user preference.
Theia: Distilling Diverse Vision Foundation Models for Robot Learning
Venue: arXiv cs.RO 2024
Year: 2024

Vision-based robot policy learning, which maps visual inputs to actions, necessitates a holistic understanding of diverse visual tasks beyond single-task needs like classification or segmentation. Inspired by this, we introduce Theia, a vision foundation model for robot learning that distills multiple off-the-shelf vision foundation models trained on varied vision tasks. Theia's rich visual representations encode diverse visual knowledge, enhancing downstream robot learning. Extensive experiments demonstrate that Theia outperforms its teacher models and prior robot learning models using less training data and smaller model sizes. Additionally, we quantify the quality of pre-trained visual representations and hypothesize that higher entropy in feature norm distributions leads to improved robot learning performance. Code, models, and demo are available at https://theia.theaiinstitute.com.
Specify and Edit: Overcoming Ambiguity in Text-Based Image Editing
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2024
Year: 2024

Text-based editing diffusion models exhibit limited performance when the user's input instruction is ambiguous. To solve this problem, we propose $\textit{Specify ANd Edit}$ (SANE), a zero-shot inference pipeline for diffusion-based editing systems. We use a large language model (LLM) to decompose the input instruction into specific instructions, i.e. well-defined interventions to apply to the input image to satisfy the user's request. We benefit from the LLM-derived instructions along the original one, thanks to a novel denoising guidance strategy specifically designed for the task. Our experiments with three baselines and on two datasets demonstrate the benefits of SANE in all setups. Moreover, our pipeline improves the interpretability of editing models, and boosts the output diversity. We also demonstrate that our approach can be applied to any edit, whether ambiguous or not. Our code is public at https://github.com/fabvio/SANE.